“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” — Carl Jung Jung is pointing at something most of us, including me, would rather avoid. The path doesn’t run through the light we imagine — it runs through the dark we won’t look at. And the darkness rarely announces itself as darkness. It shows up as a reaction that’s far bigger than the moment that caused it. A common term for this is a “trigger”. A trigger is a reaction t

About once a year, I seem to latch onto one of my favourite eighties or nineties songs. They suddenly show up with a deep new meaning and a message for me, right at the time I need to hear it. In my youth these songs just brought pleasure and escape, at least at a conscious level. I remember driving down the highway on a warm summer night in Toronto blasting music and singing along to them with friends. Man, I feel so free and light just thinking about those experiences now.

I have a confession. It is a small one that turns out to be large. I have been saying “Be present.” “Be in the present moment.” “Be here now.” I have said it to clients, to friends, to myself. It rolls off the tongue — and of course it does, because everyone says it. The airport-bookstore mystics say it. The meditation apps say it. It has become the common currency of anyone who wants to sound awake. And I am only now noticing how unconscious I have been every single time the